A review of Islamic History reveals that when Almighty Allah grants any extraordinary scholar with His Divine Blessings, you can be sure that he would not have respite from distortions, slander and lies that are attributed against him. From amongst these scholars Imam Abu Hanifa‘s name comes at the top of the list that have severely attacked by opponents. However, the credibility of Imam Abu Hanifa, as like the other three Imams’ is accepted by scholars throughout Islamic History, which in itself is a very strong argument against the opponents of Imam Abu Hanifa. Unfortunately, today severe criticism has been launched against this great Imam, which is mainly due to either three factors:

Argumentation has been highly discouraged in Islam because it leads to creating ill feelings and hatred amongst the people. It is a common disease from which many half-baked scholars and students of knowledge suffer from, who acquire knowledge for the sake of showing off. Since we live in a time when the world is considered as a global village, these debates and disputes do not only affect the people around us but rather it extends to other parts of the world due to the social media platform. The pious predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih) would always avoid argumentation despite possessing ocean of knowledge.

At a time of global advancement in various fields such as science and technology: communication across the seven seas has become instant, the duration of transcontinental journeys has reduced from months and years to a matter of hours and the world has been reduced to a global village. However, an issue of great importance that faces humanity at large is that of global poverty; a dark stain on the civilised world of the 21st century and its people.

I was one of the many Muslim scholars, including a delegation from Minhaj-ul-Qur'an, and other faiths leaders invited to a major summit of its kind in Morocco to debate the rights of religious minorities living in the Muslim world. The summit opened on 25 January and brought together 300 influential thinkers from across the globe to reassert the principles stipulated by the Constitution of Medina (Arabic: صحیفة المدینه‎, Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna), also known as the Charter of Medina.